NEW YORK — In the movie "Bone Deep," T.I. has the role of a bank robber — a "well-dressed" bank robber at that — who was loyal to his crew and wants some reciprocation.

"I play Ghost," Tip explained recently. "Ghost is a guy who was once the head of this crew — me and Idris [Elba] started the crew. I took a hit on the last job. I got shot and went to prison — I did about five years. I did the time, didn't mention anyone's name, didn't snitch. Didn't cooperate or nothing. Now I'm back out. The crew has gone on to do other jobs. Their position is, 'We've held your money for you. It's been collecting interest.' I'm like, 'Yeah, OK, but I got a job I wanna do.' They're like, 'Usually, we wait a year or two before we do a job.' I'm like, 'Yeah, I've got a job I wanna do on Tuesday. And y'all owe me.' That's what the film is about — whether or not they do that job, whether or not they trust me, whether or not we will pull the job off and what will happen after and all that kind of stuff. You have to see."

A few weeks back, a photo of Tip dressed in a traffic guard's uniform found its way online. "That's a part of the story," he explained. "I don't wanna give the story away too much."

In "Bone Deep," Tip works with a plethora of co-stars, including Elba, who also appeared with him in "American Gangster."

"It's going great. I think it will be a real hot film," Tip declared. "Everybody is getting along great — Idris, Paul Walker, Michael Ealy, Chris Brown, even Matt Dillon. All of them are cool."

Much like his album Paper Trail pushed Tip's artistic boundaries, the MC says he wanted to apply the same work ethics and principles to his ongoing acting career.

"I was taught that most of the successful actors from Will [Smith] to Denzel [Washington] — even Idris will tell you — take on the roles that scare the sh-- out of you. Joe Pesci also told me that. I've heard that in so many different places. They may have different ways of saying it. You always challenge yourself. You do the sh-- you're terrified of doing or what you don't think you can do.

"The thing is, with acting, you can't necessarily get comfortable, because you never do two films that are exactly alike," he added. "Every character provides a different set of challenges. By the end of this film, I would have mastered this character, but then I move on to the next film, to another character."

"Bone Deep" hits theaters next year. The next single from Paper Trail is "Live Your Life," featuring Rihanna. The video debuts this week.